As of 15 May 2025, at least 152 cultural figures, including 35 writers, were not free \u2013 imprisoned or in home confinement.<\/b><\/p>\n
A criminal case has been in progress against civic activist <\/span>Nina Bahinskaja.<\/b> The trial will begin on 30 May in Minsk\u2019s Pier\u0161amajski District Court.<\/span><\/p>\n The administrator of the Belarusian Wikipedia, <\/span>Volha Sitnik<\/b> (username <\/span>Homelka<\/span><\/i>), received 10 days of administrative arrest.<\/span><\/p>\n Political prisoner and prison literature author <\/span>Ihar Alinievi\u010d<\/b>, convicted for 20 years, was placed in punitive confinement in \u017dodzina prison.<\/span><\/p>\n The Ministry of Information added <\/span>Siarhiej Micha\u0142ok\u2019s<\/b> Brutto<\/b> band\u2019s YouTube channel to its \u201cextremist materials\u201d list.<\/span><\/p>\n An informational plaque disappeared from the memorial stone dedicated to the leader of the 1794 uprising,<\/span> Tadevu\u0161 Ka\u015bciu\u0161ka<\/b> (Tadeusz Ko\u015bciuszko)<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n On 6 May, reports appeared that a criminal case had been opened against 78-year-old civic activist <\/span>Nina Bahinskaja<\/b> under Article 342-2 of the Criminal Code (repeated violation of the procedure for organising or holding mass events) for displaying national symbols on the streets of Minsk in 2024. During the investigation, police took Nina Bahinskaja for a psychiatric evaluation. The trial is scheduled to begin on 30 May in Minsk\u2019s Pier\u0161amajski District Court.<\/span><\/p>\n On 15 May, it was reported that <\/span>Volha Sitnik<\/b>, administrator of the Belarusian Wikipedia (username <\/span>Homelka<\/span><\/i>), was sentenced to 10 days of administrative arrest. <\/span>Volha Sitnik lives in Minsk, has three underage children, and has been contributing to Wikipedia since 2009, writing articles about Belarusian traditional culture and nature. She was first detained on 17 April<\/span> 2025.<\/span><\/p>\n On 6 May, it was reported that <\/span>Ihar Alinievi\u010d<\/b>, a political prisoner and author of prison literature sentenced to 20 years, was placed in a punishment isolation cell in the \u017dodzina prison for a month. Alinievi\u010d is the author of the book <\/span>On the Way to Magadan,<\/span><\/i> for which he became the first laureate of the Franci\u0161ak Alachnovi\u010d Award, founded jointly by PEN Belarus and Radio Svaboda, given for the best work written in prison. The book was translated into Bosnian, Serbian, Croatian, English, German, Spanish, Czech, French, Polish, and Greek.<\/span><\/p>\n 1.<\/strong> On 5 May, the Ministry of Information added <\/span>Siarhiej Micha\u0142ok\u2019s<\/b> Brutto<\/b> band\u2019s YouTube channel to its \u201cextremist materials\u201d list.<\/span><\/p>\n 2.<\/strong> On 12 May, Homiel District Court designated the <\/span>\u0141uka\u0161esku<\/i><\/b> song as \u201cextremist\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n On 12 May, it was reported that in Minsk, KGB agents sealed the apartment of photojournalist <\/span>Hienad\u017a Vieracinski<\/b>, who left Belarus in 2023 due to politically motivated persecution.<\/span><\/p>\n On 11 May, reports appeared that an informational plaque had disappeared from the memorial stone dedicated to the leader of the 1794 uprising,<\/span> Tadevu\u0161 Ka\u015bciu\u0161ka<\/b> (Tadeusz Ko\u015bciuszko),<\/b> near the village of Kasciu\u0161kava, Horki district, Mahilo\u016d region.<\/span><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As of 15 May 2025, at least 152 cultural figures, including 35 writers, were not free \u2013 imprisoned or in home confinement. A criminal case has been in progress against civic activist Nina Bahinskaja. The trial will begin on 30 May in Minsk\u2019s Pier\u0161amajski District Court. The administrator of the Belarusian Wikipedia, Volha Sitnik (username<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":117,"featured_media":19044,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4255],"tags":[4291,4285],"class_list":["post-19040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cultural-right","tag-chronicle","tag-hronika"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/117"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19040"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19046,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19040\/revisions\/19046"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/b>I. Criminal prosecution of cultural figures, authors, and performers<\/b><\/h5>\n
II. Administrative persecution\u00a0<\/b><\/h5>\n
III<\/b>. Conditions in the places of incarceration<\/b><\/h5>\n
IV. Repressions in the music sphere<\/b><\/h5>\n
V. Persecution of cultural figures in exile<\/b><\/h5>\n
VI. Destruction of memorial sites\u00a0<\/b><\/h5>\n